Apparatus for assembling plug caps and blades



D 0, 1955 F. KLUMPP, JR 2,727,300

Y APPARATUS FOR ASSEMBLING PLUG CAPS AND BLADES Filed March so, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 20, 1955 F. KLUMPP, JR

APPARATUS FOR ASSEMBLING PLUG CAPS AND BLADES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 50, 1953 a m? z W w @M a W a Dec. 20, 1955 F. KLUMPF, JR

APPARATUS FOR ASSEMBLING PLUG CAPS AND BLADES 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 50, 1953 BY 5 fizfz' Dec; 20, 1955 F. KLUMPP, JR 2,727,300

APPARATUS FOR ASSEMBLING PLUG CAPS AND BLADES Filed March 30, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I I a Iii, I 7

United States Patent APPARATUS F OR ASSEMBLING PLUG CAPS AND BLADES Ferdinand Klumpp, Jn, Union, N. J., assignor to Heyrnan Manufacturing Company, Kenilworth, N. J.

Application March 30, 1953, Serial No. 345,410

15 Claims. (Cl. 29-206) This invention relates to an apparatus for assembling the electric contact blades to which conductors have been connected into a plug cap which is usually made of suitable flexible insulated material, such as rubber. Since the plug cap is made with a hole at one end of a size which will preferably grip the cable carrying the two conductors and with slots positioned at-the opposite end of the cap to receive the contact blades, it is a rather diflicult job to make an assembly of the blades and their conductors into the plug cap.

In my patent application S. N. 132,536, filed December 12, 1949, now Patent 2,675,529 issued April 13, 1954, I have shown and described a plug construction which assists greatly in drawing the contact blades into the cap and holding them securely in position therein. In the past I have utilized diiferent pieces of equipment or apparatus for making this assembly, but they have been objectionable from many standpoints too numerous to mention. After a study of this problem and many experiments made over the plast few years I have finally conceived a very suitable apparatus for making said assembly of plug and blades which has proven entirely satisfactory in numerous ways which will be discerned from the description which follows:

In the drawings wherein like numbers refer to corresponding parts:

Figure 1 is a top plan view on a somewhat reduced scale of the assembly structure with the parts in idle position.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but with the parts in the full assembly position.

Figure 3 is a side view of the structure with certain of the parts being shown in section and certain of the parts that are within the central bottom part being shown in dotted lines.

Figure 4 is an end view of the upper part of Figure 3 between the points a and 22 see Figure 2 showing the plug Spreaders.

Figure 5 is a plan view of the lower centered part of Figure 2 showing the plug end in dotted lines and this end spread by the spreaders ready to have the plug blades pulled into position into the plug.

Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 5 but with the plug. blades pulled all the way into the plug cap and with the pulling or needle blades in automatically released position.

Figure 7 is a top plan view of the needle blade holder.

Figure 8 is a bottom view of the needle blade holder.

Figure 9 is an end View of the adjacent end of Fig ure 8.

Figure 10 is an end view of the adjacent end of Figure 7.

Figure 11 is a top plan view of the nest base or sliding block that carries the plug cap into which the blades are to be drawn.

Figure 12 is a side view of Figure 11.

Figure 13 is aside view of one of the nest arms that helps to hold the plug cap in place.

Figure 14 is a bottom view of the nest base or sliding block that carries the plug cap into which the blades are to be drawn, the top view of it being shown in Figures 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Figure 15 is a section on the line 15-15 of Figure 14.

Figure 16 is a top plan view of the needle guide.

Figure 17 is a side view of the needle guide looking at the right side of Figure 16.

Figure 18 is a section on the line 13-18 of Figure 17.

Figure 19 is a section on the line 19-19 of Figure 16.

Figure 20 is a section on the line 20-20 of Figure 1-6.

Figure 21 is a fragmentary view showing means for holding the cap spreading fingers in position ready to receive the cable end of a plug cap.

in the drawings 1 is a base member carrying an up wardly extending part 2 on which the top plate 3 is attached, from which extends arms 4 and 4a, that carries a pivot rod 5 on which is pivoted a rocker arm 6, one end of which is pivoted at 7 and a link 3 that is pivoted at 9 to a slidable member 10. At the other end of the rocker arm 6 is pivoted at 11 the link 12 at the opposite end of which is fastened to a stud 13 connected to a piston (not shown) in a cylinder 14, the opposite end of which is connected to a tube 15 for supplying preferably compressed air for operating the piston into the connecting parts that have just been described. A valve 16, which is located so that it may be operated by the foot of an operator, controls the application of the compressed air to the piston in the cylinder 14. Mounted on the inner end of the slide 10 is a needle holder 17 positioned on the slide by a pair of dowel pins 18 and a screw 18 fitting in a hole 19, the head of the screw' fitting in a counterbore 20. At the bottom of the needle holder 17 is a pair of slits 21 in which is positioned needle blades 22 which have inturued lips 23 which fit in ledges 24 recessed in the edge of the holder 17. It will be noted that the slits 21 taper toward each other toward what may be termed a plug end of the apparatus for purposes which will be later described. It will be noted that adjacent the tapering end of the slit 21 the'hol'der itself has side tapered ends 25 and 26 for purposes which will be later described. Mounted on frame support members 27 and 28 see Figure 2 which carry the slide 10 is a needle holder 17 and forwardly beyond the holder 17 is a cap rest 29, a top view of which is shown in Figure 11 and a side view in Figure 12. It will be seen from Figure 15, that the cap rest 29 has oppositelydisposed channels 30 for the cap rest to receive the slide support members. From Figure 11 it will be seen that the cap rest 29 has holes 31 to receive dowel pins 32 on nest arms 33 and 34, each of which are fastened by screws 35 and 36 to the top part of cap rest 29. It will be noted from Figure 5 that the nest arms 33 and 34 have curved surfaces 37 at one end adjacent the curved'surfaces 38 in the member 29. Mounted on the member 29, inter mediate the nest arms 33 and 34, is a needle guide 39 that is held to member 29 by a pair of dowel pins 40 for entering the holes 41 Figure 11 in the member 29. A screw 42, with the dowel pins 40, serves to hold the needle guide 39 in position on the member 29. It will be noted that the needle guide 39 has a pair of oppositely disposed channels 43, which taper outwardly to the point 44, as shown in Figure 18. The sides forming the channels are cut away on opposite sides at the point 45, the purpose of which will be later explained. At the assembly end of the structure are a pair of cap opening slide members 46 and 47 that are transversely slidableon the frame support members 48. This sliding operation is brought about by a pair of levers 49 and 50 pivoted to frame members at 51 and 52. The opposite ends of the slide members 49 and 50 each having a slot 53 therein each of which engages its corresponding pin 54 located in the members 46 and 47. From this construction it will be seen that when the levers 49 and 50 are moved away from the central axle line, the members 46 and 47 will be pulled away from each other. Each of the members 46 and 47 are pivoted on their respective studs 55.

The cap opening pawls 56 and 57 in the operating ma chine have two positions such as shown in idle position Figure ,1 and in the operative position shown in Figure 2 as shown in Figures 2 and 5. In this position the cap opening pawls 56 and 57 come against stops 58 and 59. Levers 49 and 50 each have rollers 60 and 61 for the purposes which will be laterdescribed. Each of the cap openers 46 and 47 have studs 62 between which a spring 63 isattached for returning the cap opening slide members 46 and 47 back to normal position after they have been moved to the cap opener position shown in Figure 2.. A guide plate 64 is utilized for guiding the cap openers 46 and 47 as they are operated by the levers 49 and 0 and the spring 63.

, By reference to Figures 3, 14. and 15 it will be noticed that an arm 65 is pivoted on a frame member at 66 and also at 67 to a connecting bar 68 that is pivoted at 69 to a rocker arm 70 pivoted at 71 to a frame member. The arm 65 carries a roller 72 that is positioned in a recess 73 in the cap rest 29. A roller 74 is carried by the rocker arm 70.

In the assembly operation of the structure just described the parts are in the position of Figure l a plug cap is placed on the curved surface 38 on the sliding block 29 and between the curved surfaces on the parts 33 and 34 with the cable entrance end toward the pawls 56 and 57 as shown byv the dotted line P see Figure 1. Then the operator places a foot on the valve lever 16 and the compressed air acting on the piston moves the levers shown and described in Figure 3. This starts a movement of the member 17 which only moves a slight distance before the roller 74 will move up on to the surface 76, it being understood that when the parts are in idle position the roller 74 is closely adjacent the incline going up onto the surface 76. This action causes the lever 70 to move to the right, drawing the bar 68 out and this in turn moves the roller 72 on the lever 65 and located in the recess 73 as above described to the left thereby moving the member 29 to a position where the pawl ends 0 and d of the pawls 56 and 57 are moved into the cable end of the plug. Shortly thereafter the rollers 60 and 61 carried by the levers 49 and 50 engage the cam surfaces 25 and 26 on the member 17 which is moved forward toward the member 29. As the rollers 60 and 61 move up on to the member 17 and theslide 10, as shown in Figure 2, the member 17 engages and holds the member 29 in the position as shown in Figure 2. At the same time the levers 49 and 50, acting on the pins 54 carried by the cap opening slide members 46 and 47, and moves these cap opening slide members to the position shownin Figure 2. This causes the cap opening pawls 56 and 57 to stretch the cable end of the plug to form an opening large enough to receive the plug blades B and the needle blades 22 which due to the tension applied to them by riding on the ends 44 of the needle guide 39 causes the protrusions e and f thereon to enter the holes in the ends of the cable blades. At this time the members 56 and 57 are positioned against the stops 58 and 59 preventing an over-stretching and injury to the plug.

In order to automatically hold the plug cap engaging members 56 and 57 in the position shown in Figure 1 withthe ends c and d in engagement with each other and ready to have the plug pushed over them to later .stretch the plug cap and to receive the needle blades and the plug blades as shown in Figure 5, each of the fingers 56 and 57 are provided with dowel pins 79 and 80 which are normally positioned in recesses or cam surfaces 77 and 78 as shown in Figure 21 wherein it is seen that the spring 63, referring to Figure 4, that normally holds the cap opening slide members 46 and 47 in the idle position shown in Figure 1, will hold the dowel pins 79 and 80 in the position whereby the fingers c and d are brought together ready to pass into the plug cap P.

As soon as this plug and needle engagement has been completed, the operator causes the piston to reverse its motion which through the levers pulls the slide 10 and the member 17 backwardly toward the position they occupied in Figure 1. Due to the expansion of a plug cap made of highly resilient material, which is placed on the curved surface 37 on the sliding block 29, considerable longitudinal outwardly acting pressure is applied to the block 29 against the needle holder 17 and slide 10, thereby eliminating the use of a spring so that when the, holder 17 and the slide 10 are moved away from the block 29 as heretofore described, this outwardly acting pressure will move the slide 29 so as to cause the roller 74, through its interconnected parts previously described, to ride up onto the surface 76 of the member or needle holder 17 ready for the next assembly of a plug cap and blades. As the plug blades reach their position in the plug the inner ends of the needle blades due to the tension of the blades themselves move on the inclined channels 43 on the needle guide 39 and will automatically unhook from the blades as shown in Figure 6 and the member 17 will be withdrawn so that the parts are locked in the position approximately shown in Figure 1 ready for a new assembly operation.

From what has been said it will be seen that I have provided an apparatus which will assemble the plug blades in a plug cap very quickly and with the least amount of efiort on the part of the operator. While I have shown and described pneumatic means of operating the assembly machine it may be operated by a hand lever. In Figure 11 I have shown an auxiliary inwardly curved surface 38 which can be used for a plug cap having a different shape than the one utilizing the curved surface 38 and by this curved surface I mean simply a curved depression in the top face of the member 29.

In Figure 4 I have shown a single spring 63 for drawing the cap opening slide members 46 and 47 back to idle position. The recess within which spring 63 is mounted and into which the dowel pins 62 extend, can be made longer and a spring positioned between each of the pins 62 and the end of the recess, whereby the springs may be compressed when the separators are pulled to the position they will occupy when the cooperative parts are in the position shown in Figure 5, so that after the plug cap and contact blades have been assembled and the slidable members 17 and 29 return to idle position, the springs 63 being under compression then expands and returns its separators back to idle position as shown in Figure 1. From what has been said it is obvious that many of the other details may be varied without departing from the spirit of my invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, said structure comprising a plurality of parts including a member 29 having oppositely positioned parts with seats thereon to receive the plug body with its conductor end in an exposed position, said member carrying a needle guide located between parts of said seats, said guide having guiding surfaces thereon, a pair of cap opening slide members mounted for transverse movements in opposite directions, each slide member having pivoted pawls normally in close relationship at one end near the exposed end of the plug body when it is on said seats, said structure including another member 17 slidably carried on the structure and having a pair of spaced resilient needle blades with free ends normally extending onto said guiding surfaces on said needle guide, said free ends having small projections to enter standard holes in the end of plug blades, means for moving said first mentioned member 29 so the said closely spaced pawl ends, will move into the adjacent plug cap end, further means for moving said cap opening slide members apart whereby the said pawls will move to spread open the conductor end of the plug cap, means also included with the last two mentioned means for moving the second mentioned member 17 into operative contact with the first member 29 and at the same time moving the needle blades into engagement with the contact blades, said last mentioned means being reversible to draw the plug blades in proper position into the plug cap and automatically disconnect the needle blades from the assembled plug cap.

2. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 1 further defined in that common means are provided for moving all of said parts including a slide plate connected to links positioned at the end of the structure opposite the location of said slidable members, andfurther defined in that a power cylinder and piston are operatively connected to said links with a foot means for bringing the piston into operation.

3. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 1 further defined in that said means for moving the said sliding members includes a pair of levers, one on each side of the structure and pivoted at one end thereto, each lever having a slot at its opposite end to engage a pin carried at the end of its co-operative sliding member away from the pivoted pawls, each lever having a roller intermediate its ends, and cam surfaces on said member carrying the needle blade, for engaging the lever rollers for the purpose described and spring means extending between said sliding members to return them and said levers to rest position when said member carrying the needle blades is moved back to rest position.

4. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 1 further defined in that said needle guide has oppositely disposed guiding surfaces in the form of channels that taper outwardly from the entrance end of the needles toward the opposite end for the purposes described.

5. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 1 further defined in that said member 17 carrying the needle blades and the member carrying the needle guide 39 are interconnected by a pair of pivoted levers inter-connected at one of their ends by a stiff bar, the member carrying the needle guide having a recess therein to receive the free end of one of said levers while the free end of the other lever has a roller adapted to engage said means for moving said first member for the purposes described.

6. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, said structure including a member 29 having parts with curved surfaces therein to form a seat for a plug cap, a pair of slidable members having pivotal pawls with adjacent ends normally in close relation and adapted to enter the cable end of a plug cap when in said seat, means for moving said member to cause the cable end of the plug to pass around said adjacent pawl ends, a pair of spaced pivoted levers having means at their free ends to engage said slidable members at their ends away from said pawls, an element for moving both of said levers simultaneously so they will move said slidable members apart and thereby cause said pawls to spread the cable end of the plug, said element carrying a pair of spaced needle blades having free ends passing through a guide member carried by said first mentioned member, means for moving said element carrying the needle blades to cause them to move through the plug caps so the plug contact blades will be engaged by the needle blades, means for then moving the needle blades to draw the plug contact blades into position inithe plug and means for automatically'disconnecting the needle blades from the plug blades when the latterreaches'their working position in the plug cap.

7. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body as set forth in claim 6' further defined in that said levers have rollers intermediate their ends for engaging at the proper time cam surfaces on the" member carrying the needle blades and further defined in that stop means are provided for said pawls whereby they will only stretch a plug a certain amount for the purpose described.

8. A structure for assembling electrical contact. blades into a plug body as setforth in claim 6 further defined in that said guide member has curved surface channels on opposite sides, the surfaces being. so formed that the needles will be spread apart to engage holes in plug blades inserted along side of said pivoted fingers, furthermore said guide surfaces acting to allow the needleblades to move toward each other and disconnect from the plug blades when they have been pulled into place in the plug cap within said seat.

9. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body as set forth in claim 6 further defined in that means are provided for operatively interconnecting said member having the plug seat and the element carrying the needle blades when in normal separated restposh tion, said interconnecting means, comprising a roller located in arecess in the seat member, the roller being on a pivoted lever the opposite end of which is pivoted to a bar, the opposite end of the bar being pivoted to one end of a pivoted lever having a roller at its free end, positioned when at rest position, adjacent a cam surface on the member movable with the needle element for the purposes described.

10. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body as set forth in claim 6 further defined in that said means for moving all of said members, elements and associated parts comprises a pneumatic device interconnected by suitable links and levers to a slide, carrying said member that has the needle blades mounted thereon. 1

11. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, said structure including a slidable member having a seat for receiving a plug cap and another slidable member carrying needle blades, said members being arranged in tandem relationship, a pair of transversely arranged slidable members having pivoted pawls for protruding into a plug cap carried by said first mentioned member, means for moving said member and plug so said pawls will pass into the cable end of the plug, means for moving the slidable members apart to cause said pawls to spread the plug cap so plug blades can be inserted between said pawls toward the plug cap, means for moving the member carrying the needle blades to a position adjacent the seat member whereby the needle blades will extend to a point where protrusions at their free ends will enter holes in the end of said plug blades, additional means cooperating with the last mentioned means for moving the needle carrier member back to starting position to pull the plug blades into position within the plug cap and means for automatically releasing the needle blades from the plug blades when the latter reaches their operative position within the plug cap.

12. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 11 further defined in that the means for moving the slidable members apart comprise a pair of pivoted levers actuated at the proper time by movement of the member carrying the needle blades, said levers having means at their free ends for engaging parts on the ends of the slidable members and spring means for returning the slidable members to starting position, and further defined in that means are provided for stopping the pawls at a point in their movement whereby the plug cap will not be spread beyond a safe point.

7 13. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, as set forth in claim 11 further defined in that the means for moving the slidable members apart comprise a pair of pivoted levers actuated at the proper time by movement of the member carrying the needle blades, said levers having means at their free ends for engaging parts on the ends of the slidable members and spring means for returning the slidable members to starting position and further defined in that means are provided for positioning the slidable member pawls, when the structureparts are in idle position, so they are ready to go into the cable end of a plug cap when the cap is placed into its seat on the member having the seat.

' 14. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug body of flexible insulating material, said structure having a base portion, support members mounted on said base, a pair of slidable members 17 and 29 carried on said support members in tandem relation, means for moving said slidable members 17 and 29, one of said members having a seat for a plug cap and a guide mem-.

ber 39 in co-operative relationship with said seat, the other of said slidable members carrying in spaced position thereon a pair of needle blades extending, into operative position on said guide member, adjacent said seat, a pair of slidable members slidably mounted adjacent said member 29 having the plug seat, cap engaging pawls pivotally mounted next to each other on said slidable members, the pawlscbeing formed to enter the cable end of the plug cap when in said seat, means for moving said seat member so as to push the cable end of the plug cap over said pawl ends, means for moving said slidable members to cause said fingers to spread the plug ends, and means for moving the member carrying the needle blades through the plug for engagement with plug blades and means for moving the member 17 carrying the needle blades to pull-the plug blades into the plug cap, said guide member thenacting to automatically release the needle, blades from the plug blades as and for the purpose described.

15. A structure for assembling electrical contact blades into a plug cap as set forth in 'claim 14 further defined in that means are provided for normallyholding said pawl ends, which go into the plug cap, in close relationship with each other so as to be sure that when the member carrying the plug cap is moved toward the slidable members, that the pawls will readily enter the plug cap for the spreading operation.

References Cited in'the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS 

